ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the main problems that hinder the creation of an overarching theory about nationalism. It follows some of the concepts’ inherent paradoxes and the responses of previous scholarship to them. In the light of recent works, it argues that the creation of national identities is tightly connected to the creation of national histories according to a set of distinct narrative assumptions. The last section provides a detailed account of eight elements –unity, community, continuity, sovereignty, purity, historical subjecthood, representation, and the idea of the world of nations – and how they influence historical practices and produce this nationalist worldview.
